(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
From VOA Learning English, this is the Health Report.
November is Alzheimer's Awareness Month in the United States. Alzheimer's is a frightening disease. It is frightening not only for those who suffer from memory loss, but also for their loved ones.
But researchers in California say a new way of treating Alzheimer's disease is showing promise for reversing some of that memory loss. The new treatment combines western medicine with eastern philosophy – ideas rooted in Asian religions.
"I could not remember conversations that I had had with my kids and my husband. I started having to refer to my calendar all the time."
This 55-year-old woman has suffered from progressive memory loss connected with early Alzheimer's. She is still working as a lawyer, but does not want her name publicized.
The woman is one of 10 patients who received a new treatment for memory loss at the University of California, Los Angeles.
"I now have much more confidence in my work and not afraid that I will forget something. I don't have to rely on my lists. I don't have to write everything down."
Dr. Dale Bredesen is with the Easton Center for Alzheimer's Disease Research at UCLA. He says nine of 10 patients suffering from either Alzheimer's or other disorders of the brain noted improvements in their memory.
Using Eastern philosophy seems to help
He says the new therapy treats the whole patient, not just parts of the patient. This is called holistic care.
Dr. Bredesen says the traditional use of only one treatment, what he calls "monotheraphy," just did not work with many patients.
"They have either taken a single drug, monotherapy, to try with Alzheimer's and that has been a failure repeatedly, or they have tried without any sort of background simply saying, 'Okay, try exercise, try changing your diet,' these sorts of things, and there has not been any way to understand how these things contribute to the disease."
Dr. Bredesen says there is a constant balance of the brain remembering and forgetting. He says many things, including a person's lifestyle, can create an imbalance in brain activity. And this imbalance can lead to memory loss.
"We identified 36 different parts of this network that contribute to the imbalance. So when you are chronically on the wrong side of that balance, you are in fact pulling apart the connections instead of making them. Then, in the long run, that can lead to Alzheimer's disease."
The thirty-six different parts or elements include a person's diet, exercise and sleep. Dr. Bredesen creates an individualized treatment for each patient. He does this by taking images of their brain, testing their blood and asking many questions about their daily life.
Treatments include lifestyle changes and even medicines or vitamin supplements. He describes this new therapy as combining western understanding of the human body with the eastern method of looking at the whole patient.
Lifestyle changes can help
As for lifestyle changes, subjects were told to avoid carbohydrates, like bread and pasta. They also avoided processed foods and gluten, a protein found in wheat. Researchers told subjects to eat more fish and to take vitamin B12, D3 and fish oil. They also practiced yoga, sat quietly for 20 minutes two times each day and they slept more.
"What we're using is a combination that brings these two together to create a new kind of physician that is doing a different kind of medicine who understands the basics of molecular genetics, but also understands the need to bring things together in a network fashion."
Dr. Bredesen says for the nine patients whose memory improved, it usually happened within three to six months. He says the 10th patient was too far along in the disease for any improvement to be observed.
The UCLA center is now working with 30 additional patients as it moves to expand its research. The researchers say they followed some patients up to two and a half years and the memory improvements remained.
I'm Anna Matteo.
词汇解释
1.progressive a.逐渐的；渐次的；渐进的；(疾病、暴力等)愈来愈严重的
One prominent symptom of the disease is progressive loss of memory.
这种疾病的一个显著症状就是记忆逐渐丧失。
2.holistic adj. 整体的；全盘的
So, as I said to you, natural medicine is also known as holistic medicine.
那么，正如我对你说过的那样，自然医学也被称为整体医学。
3.carbohydrate n. [有化] 碳水化合物；[有化] 糖类
Athletes usually eat a high carbohydrate diet.
运动员通常吃高碳水化合物食物。
4.genetics n. 遗传学
Genetics is also bringing about dramatic changes in our understanding of cancer.
遗传学也正使我们对癌症的理解发生巨大的变化。
内容解析
1.and there has not been any way to understand how these things contribute to the disease.
contribute to 有助于；捐献；促成
She is exuberating in the knowledge of having contributed to victory.
她知道自己对胜利有所贡献而显得沾沾自喜。
Natural disasters have obvi-ously contributed to the continent's economic crisis.
很显然，自然灾害也是造成该大陆经济危机的原因之一。
参考译文
这里是美国之音慢速英语健康报道。
在美国，11月份是阿尔茨海默氏症宣传月，阿尔茨海默氏症是一种可怕的疾病，说它可怕是因为它对失去记忆的患者和他们的亲人来说都很可怕。
但加州的研究者称一种新的治疗阿尔茨海默氏症的方法有望恢复部分失去的记忆，这种新疗法结合了西医和源于亚洲宗教的东方哲学。
“我记不起来我和孩子们和丈夫谈过的话了，我做每件事都要查阅日历。”
这位55岁的妇女患有和早期老年痴呆症相关的逐步失忆，她仍做律师工作，但她不想公开姓名。
她和另外9名患者在洛杉矶加州大学接受了失忆新疗法治疗。
“我现在对自己的工作更有信心了，不再害怕会忘记什么，我不必依赖日程表了，无需把每件事都写下来。”
戴尔·布莱德森博士就职于洛杉矶加州大学的伊斯顿阿尔茨海默氏症研究中心，他说患有老年痴呆症或其他大脑失调症的10名患者中有9人的记忆有了改善。
他说这种新疗法对患者的整体进行治疗，而不是对部分进行治疗，这就叫做整体疗法。
布莱德森博士说传统方法只使用一种疗法，并不是对很多患者都有效。
“他们或者服用单一的药物和单一疗法来治疗老年痴呆症，这种多次会反复失败，或者是根本不了解背景，只会说，‘锻炼一下，改变下食谱，’之类的东西，这些方法并不能理解导致疾病的原因。”
布莱德森博士说大脑会在记忆和遗忘之间保持平衡，他说很多东西，包括人的生活方式都会导致大脑活动失衡，这种失衡会导致记忆缺失。
“我们识别出这一系列导致失衡的36个不同的因素，所以当你处于长期失衡的错误状态时，你就会切断联系而不是制造联系。从长远来看，这就会导致老年痴呆症。”
这36个因素包括人的饮食、锻炼和睡眠。布莱德森博士为每位患者提供个性化的疗法，他通过扫描大脑图像、测血液和询问有关日常生活的问题来确定疗法。
治疗方法包括生活方式的改变，甚至包括服药和补充维生素，他称这种新疗法结合了西方人对人体的了解和东方整体看待病人的观念。
就生活方式改变而言，患者要避免面包和面食之类的碳水化合物，还要避免加工食品和谷蛋白，谷蛋白是在小麦中发现的一种蛋白质。研究者告诉患者要多吃鱼并服用维生素B12、D3和鱼油，还要锻炼瑜伽，每天静坐两次，每次20分钟，还要多睡。
“我们将两种方法结合起来，创造一种从事不同医学类型的新医生，这样的医生不仅懂得分子遗传学原理，还懂得需要从整体看问题。”
布莱德森博士说，对这9位记忆力有改善的患者来说，好转通常发生在3到6个月内，他说第10位患者至今未发现有改善。
洛杉矶加州大学的伊斯顿阿尔茨海默氏症研究中心在扩大其研究内容，目前开始治疗另外30名患者，研究者称他们跟踪了一些患者长达两年半的时间，他们的记忆力仍未退化。
我是安娜·马特奥。
